GiveMN and Bear Trails
November 18, 2010 – 5:11 PM CST
One of the things you generated with your giving during GiveMN’s ‘Give to the Max Day’ was this interview on WCCO radio http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2010/11/18/bear-center-draws-big-donations-on-give-to-max-day/.
We congratulated St Olaf College for their first place win and received this nice message back:
It was a pleasure to have worked together (which is what it really was) to get the most money and donors for our respective organizations! I've been poking around your Facebook page and it is amazing to see where all of your self-named "bear heads and lillypadders" live. You literally had donations from all over the world. I have been, like everyone else, enthralled by the story and eagerly awaited your updates on MPR (That was you who was speaking with Cathy Wurzer, right?)
On our local Northfield blogs and on my own personal Facebook page, I have been encouraging people to give to NABC. Yours is an organization with soul that is very definitely worth ongoing support - not just once a year!
Take care and best of luck,
Tracy
Thank you, Tracy!
In the past 24 hours, Sue has posted 3 videos at http://www.bear.org/website/videos-a-more/videos-/den-cam-video-clips.html. The Sept 26 and 27 videos are the ones shown at the Hinckley fan gathering on Oct 30. The Oct 22 footage was shot the day we found Lily and Hope at their chosen den.
Then, we saw your interest in the tracks that are making news in New England at: http://www.eveningtribune.com/mysource/home_and_garden/x1385880209/Mystery-surrounds-black-bear-tracks-scratches.
To add to that discussion, walking with bears shows us how those tracks are made. It’s one of the things we discuss in the Black Bear Field Courses here and on the trips to see grizzlies in Alaska. It’s one of the ways to tell a bear trail from a deer trail because bears tend to walk in the same footprints each time. Sometimes, they are just walking. Sometimes, it is scent-marking as when they approach or leave a scent-marking tree or telephone pole. When scent-marking, bears place each foot down firmly, almost stomping, especially with the forefeet, sliding or twisting each paw before taking the next step. Some people call it Cowboy Walking. Some call it Stomp-walking. Lynn illustrated it in “The Man Who Walks With Bears.” One-eyed Jack did a better job of demonstrating it in the longer UK version of that documentary. He does it just before his big fight with Lumpy during mating season.
What can bears learn from the scent? We can’t read the minds of bears, but if we can extrapolate from the laboratory mouse literature, they can determine individual identity, sexual status, and mood. Both males and females do it.
More information on bear marking can be found here:
Marking Trees and Poles http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/black-bear-sign/56-marking-trees-and-poles.html
Bear Tracks and Trails http://www.bear.org/website/bear-pages/black-bear/black-bear-sign/51-bear-tracks-and-trails.html
There is also a short video of Marking Behavior among the other videos at http://www.bear.org/website/videos-a-more/videos-/bear-videos.html
Thank you for all you do.
—Lynn Rogers and Sue Mansfield, Biologists, Wildlife Research Institute and North American Bear Center